


nothing new

by TheQueenInTheNorth



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fix-It of Sorts, Season 6 Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-14
Updated: 2019-04-14
Packaged: 2020-01-13 10:10:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18466825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheQueenInTheNorth/pseuds/TheQueenInTheNorth
Summary: On a mission, Elena and Mack have to pretend to be a couple. That they used to be one should make that easier, right?





	nothing new

Elena focussed on the people milling around in the underground club, most gambling or watching the fight in the steel cage. She did her best not to dwell on just how long it had been since she and Mack had been alone together.

The mission had been supposed to be Melinda and her but another mission had run longer than anticipated and somehow Mack had decided to put himself on this with her.

He didn’t speak, either, surveying the room as she did. She caught him sneaking glances her way out of the corner of his eye again and again.

Maybe he was waiting for some kind of reaction from her to their surroundings. So far, she had nothing to offer. She had known what it would be going in, her arms on full display in the tank top she’d chosen.

This place was a mix of Inhumans, otherwise genetically modified people, and those who chose artificial enhancements. They were on the look-out for whomever was creating their own brand of mutants, hoping to find out if they were purposefully making the people that underwent their procedures go berserk or if that was an accident. Either way, they would put an end to it.

“You good?”Mack asked quietly.

Elena simply nodded without looking at him. She really didn’t know how he expected her to act around him after everything. Hell, she didn’t even know how she wanted to act around him.

Before she had to come up with something to say, a woman came over to them. Late twenties, probably, taller than Elena and with a smile so broad it showed off most of her sharpened teeth. She was beautiful in the same way a panther was, and somehow twice as threatening.

“Hey,”she said, holding her hand out.“You’re new here, right? I’m Baria.”

“Yo-Yo,”Elena said as she took her hand. For simplicity’s sake, they’d decided she could go with a nickname she was already used to.

Baria’s grip was firm, her skin a little too cool and there were gemstones inlaid in her knuckles.

“Nice to meet you,”Baria practically purred, letting her gaze drift slowly down her body and back up, Elena’s hand still in hers.

Elena winked at her when she met her eyes again and Baria grinned. Her teeth looked ever sharper up close.

Mack cleared his throat loudly.

Baria barely glanced at him before asking Elena,“So is that your trainer, or…?”

“And,”Mack snapped, winding an arm around Elena’s waist and pulling her against him.

She laughed her shock off, giving Baria a shrug and an eye roll as if to say, _guys…_

Baria chuckled at that but it was a hollow sound.“Well, maybe I’ll see you around, yeah?”

And with that she disappeared back towards the fighting rink.

Elena waited just long enough to make sure she was really gone before stepping away and rounding on Mack.“And just what was that?”

All they had agreed on in terms of their alias was that he would pose as her trainer.

He shrugged. She knew him too well for it to appear as casual as he was clearly going for.

“We wouldn’t want her to get too interested, have her snooping around,”he said.“It could have endangered the mission.”

Elena raised an eyebrow at him.“Oh? Wouldn’t I have been able to get information from her?”

“There’s plenty of ways to get information,”Mack replied, a slight twitch in his jaw.“You don’t need to flirt it out of her.”

Which of course was not actually a reply to her real question: Why do you even care?

She rolled her eyes and returned her attention to the mission.

* * *

As it turned out, Baria was one of the organisers of the underground fighting ring which mainly meant two things: Mack got a lot of exasperated looks from Elena for making the mission more difficult than it had to be, and they had to keep up the couple charade.

They got away with the occasional casual touch for that first night, pretending to be absorbed in their surroundings. Or, well, actually checking out everything but not making much of a secret of it, since a new fighter and her trainer-slash-boyfriend would be expected to take everything in.

Mack did a very good job of fretting over her split lip when she left the ring after winning her fight; she decided it was an act because admitting to herself that it wasn’t would have been too hard.

Baria stepped back over to her as Mack was off to the bar to fetch some ice for her.“Impressive. Where’d you get the arms?”

“Don’t give my hook-up out to strangers,”Elena replied smoothly, accepting the cocktail Baria handed her but not taking a sip.“Sorry, chica.”

“Understandable,”she said as she took a long swig of her own drink.“Then I guess I’ll just have to make sure we don’t stay strangers, huh?”

Elena raised an eyebrow at her.“Meaning?”

“There’s a little after party when the big fight’s done tomorrow,”Baria elaborated.“You should come. Bring the big guy, too, if you must.”

She said it with a wink, apparently over her initial disappointment at learning Elena and Mack were a couple. Allegedly, anyway.

“Sounds good,”Elena said.

“I’ll let you know the details tomorrow, then. It’s all very hush-hush.”

Elena doubted she’d get any details but she nodded anyway.

Mack returned just then, handing her ice wrapped up in a napkin, and giving Baria a friendly nod and a smile that barely reached his eyes.

“Well, I’m off. Catch.” Baria threw something their way, and Elena’s hand shot out automatically to snatch it before it hit Mack’s outstretched hand.

Baria was already walking away, throwing the barest bones of an explanation across her shoulder,“Consider it a token of friendship, _chica._ ”

Elena looked down at the thing in her hand. It was a key to a hotel room, much nicer than the one SHIELD had booked them for their cover.

“What do you wanna bet that room’s bugged?”Elena asked.

Mack scowled.“We can’t turn it down. I already almost messed it up for us with her.” He rubbed at his neck sheepishly.“Sorry, by the way.”

“Well, what’s done is done,”Elena said, shrugging off his apology.“Let’s go see our room, then.”

Mack swallowed hard, his throat working visibly.“I guess that means we have to keep the act up, yeah?”

“Not like we’ll do anything we haven’t done before,”Elena returned, and started walking off before he could comment on the ice in her voice, or notice the tears she was horrified to find stinging at the corners of her eyes.

* * *

Elena woke up with Mack’s arms around her, not daring to move, barely daring to breathe. The feel of him pressed against her was so familiar, yet so foreign after months of going without him in her bed.

She thought about extracting herself from his embrace but was sure she wouldn’t manage without waking him, and this was not something she wanted to hang over the mission, making things even more awkward than they already were.

So instead she feigned sleep, feigned indifference to herself, and waited for Mack to wake up, keeping her breathing slow and steady even as he stirred.

He froze for a moment, the way she had on waking. Then his arms tightened around her, just for a second, his face buried in her hair, and only then did he pull away carefully.

He gently nudged her shoulder once he was out of bed and dressed.

She blinked at him as if she’d actually been woken by him.

“Time to get up,”he said, and there was a noticeable gap at the end of the sentence, a spot where they both knew a term of endearment should have gone.

She stood up and headed into the shower without a word.

* * *

Elena let the genetically altered man acting as referee yank her arm into the air as he announced her as the winner, pushing away the thought that even though his hand was covered in faux scales, her arm was the more unnatural one.

She met Mack’s eyes and he looked at her so much like he used to that she could almost pretend things were alright between them. But when she stepped to the edge of the rink and he lifted her into his arms, they both hesitated.

“Congratulations,”Mack said, mainly so he said anything at all, so the onlookers would see him speak and maybe not wonder why he wasn’t kissing her. His gaze dipped to her lips.

“We kind of have to,”Elena pointed out. Her arms were around his neck, her legs locked around his waist, a broad smile on her face that she kept on for the sake of the mission.

He nodded, and then he kissed her.

Perhaps it should have felt strange. Instead it felt like coming home.

A weight lifted of Elena’s heart, a weight that had been there so long she’d forgotten what it felt like for it to be gone. She allowed herself to get lost in the moment, a reprieve from missing him even though he was never far away.

His fingers were tangled in her hair and he kissed her like he meant it, like he was as lost in these sensations as she was.

They only broke apart when someone loudly cleared their throat next to them.

Baria cocked her head to one side, distinctly amused.“If you’ll follow me? You guys are welcome to continue this in the hot tub at the party.”

Mack set Elena down carefully, cheeks flushed, and wound his arm around her waist as they followed Baria.

* * *

They did eventually retire to the hot tub as she'd suggested, though they did it because they needed to compare notes and come up with a plan of action.

With Elena straddling Mack and pretending to whisper filthy things into his ear, they were afforded the privacy they needed.

“My money’s on Bach,”Mack murmured, his hands stroking along her sides.“Not a single mod on his dominant hand but the other arm’s cover in them. Seems like the type who’d play god on more than just himself.”

Elena nuzzled against him, humming her agreement.“We’ll let them team know to stake him out, then.”

“Sounds good.”

He shifted a little, just enough to unbalance Elena, and she pressed closer against him to stabilise herself at the same time as he grasped her hips to steady her.

They stared at each other for a moment that seemed to stretch on forever and then they were kissing again, desperate and sloppy, not one thought of the mission in either of their minds.

When they broke apart, Elena was breathless and almost dizzy; the evidence that Mack was just as affected pressing into her thigh. She swallowed hard, trying to find something to say and coming up blank.

Mack beat her to it.“When this is done, do you think we could talk about us again?”

Her tongue darted out to wet her lips.“Is there an us to talk about?”

“I’d like there to be,”he said, voice so soft yet forlorn it somehow both mended her heart and broke it further. His thumbs were drawing soothing circles on her skin. He was still close enough that they were breathing each other’s air.“I was scared, Elena. I was so scared of losing you that I pushed you away before that could happen.” He laughed, utterly without amusement.“Which is of course stupid but I don’t know why it took me so long to realise that.”

“Well, you’ve always been very slow,”she teased, and it got a wry chuckle out of him. She bit her lip, then added,“Turtleman.”

He smiled at the fond nickname, tucking her hair behind her ear.“So we’ll talk?”

“We’ll talk,”she confirmed, and buried her face against the crook of his neck, mumbling further observations to him.

They still had a mission to settle, after all.

If she stopped every few sentences to kiss him - well, that was for realism.


End file.
